Fiction for Now

Tag: characters

Last year, a friend told me she had an idea for a story. “That’s awesome!” I said. “Tell me about your characters.” “The heroine is kind of a rebel who sees things differently,” she explained. “Then there’s another girl who represents the establishment.” I stopped her and threw down some emergency novelist knowledge: characters are … Continue reading How to Write a Novel, Part 2: Crafting Characters

Stephen King must have a much more affectionate relationship with short stories than I do. The past two months I spent writing pieces for ASU’s cli-fi short story contest—submitting them just a few days shy of the deadline last Friday—didn’t feel like a passionate, mysterious encounter. More like a home invasion. Let’s review the charges: … Continue reading Sentenced: Struggles with Short Stories

I can't believe November is almost over! Is everyone frantically pounding the keys for the final week of NaNoWriMo? I thought about signing up this year, but I wanted to dedicate myself to Syzygy, and working with a manuscript that's already more than 20,000 words seemed like cheating! Admittedly, the draft should be much longer by … Continue reading Fall, Freelancing, and Fixes: Update on “Syzygy”

Okay, technically it's Thursday (I've been traveling, so I'm running late this week, sorry)! But I still wanted to share in the fun of comparing favorite character tropes. Bickering Romance My favorite character trope dates back to at least 1599, exemplified by Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare’s brilliant comedy Much Ado About Nothing. These couples … Continue reading Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite Character Tropes

The following is the second installment of a collaborative guest post from book bloggers Emma (emdoesbookreviews) and Mallory (The Leaning Tower of Tomes), discussing their impressions of my novel, Blue Karma. Part 2 focuses on the book's characters. * * * MALLORY: I think the best part of the book, for me, were the characters. I really liked … Continue reading Reader Reactions: Book Bloggers discuss Blue Karma, Pt 2